If most health clubs can be compared to a glitzy singles bar, apartment complex health clubs are more like the neighborhood watering hole.
Maybe they don`t have as many frills and won`t yield a date for Friday night, but they`re convenient, more casual, may be a little cheaper and sometimes you can even get the house to pick up the tab.
”It`s much different. It`s a lot more relaxed,” said Jennifer Kush, a former Chicago Health Club employee and member who now lives at McClurg Court apartments, 333 E. Ontario St., and belongs to its sports center.
Kush, 22, said she used to laugh as she watched some women labor more over their makeup than their workout at her former club.
”Here, I get up in the morning . . . go down and that`s how I look,”
she said. ”You don`t get people staring at you.”
Non-residents who`d rather not flirt while they sweat are also drawn to the apartment health clubs, which many find less intimidating.
”I`ve been to a number of health clubs where there`s a whole other agenda, whether it`s a boy-girl thing or whatever . . . but here, that`s not the case,” said Cynthia Quick, director of special events for the Lakeside Group, an art exposition management firm that has a corporate membership at McClurg.
”People here are very friendly, but it`s not laden with that layer,”
she said.
All shapes and sizes
While the McClurg club is a full-sized center complete with indoor tennis courts, an indoor pool, aerobics rooms, weight rooms and cardiovascular equipment for about 2,000 members, the exercise facilities at many other rental complexes consist of only a few stationary bikes and a weight room.
”As far as the equipment, there isn`t as much, but there aren`t as many people, so it works out,” said Kush.
Access to most of the small- to mid-sized facilities is automatic for residents and not extended to non-residents except occasionally as guests. But many larger clubs charge membership fees and are open to the public.
Naturally, the prices charged by complex-based clubs vary according to the amount of space, equipment and services they provide. Rates can run the gamut from no additional charge for residents to more than $700 a year;
however, fees almost always are lower for residents. In many cases, leasing offices will offer one year`s membership free to lure new tenants.
Setting themselves apart
The popularity of equipping rental properties with health clubs and exercise facilities began when developers needed to distinguish themselves from other ”singles` apartments” in the late 1970s and early `80s, said Todd Zimmerman, co-manager of Zimmerman Associates Inc., a national real estate marketing and strategic planning firm.
”In the `70s, I would characterize the health club effort as more of a marketing tool,” he said. The facilities themselves were less important than the social gathering place they provided.
”That goes when you build a pool-the deck area is more important than the water,” he said.
But, he said, ”the picture changed dramatically in the `80s.”
He noted that when Baby Boomers faced the onset of middle-age spread and the fitness craze really took off, more focus was placed on what equipment actually was provided in the complexes` exercise rooms.
Rick Harb, president of the Apartment Council of Greater Chicago, said that locally, exercise facilities began replacing tennis courts as the hot item in the mid-`80s, when developers saw the tennis craze of the `70s shifting to year-round fitness.
”Health facilities on (rental) properties have become pretty much standard,” Harb said.
Zimmerman and Harb said concierge services will be the focus of the 1990s, but exercise facilities will not go away.
Although many tenants expect a complex to have some sort of fitness equipment, Sandra Moore, of Relcon Apartment Finders, said that it`s rarely listed by apartment hunters as a high priority.
”That certainly isn`t something they blurt out right away,” she said, but added that it can be a big swaying factor if a renter`s choice comes down to two buildings.
A big lure for some
Lois Hirschfield, director of leasing at McClurg Court, is convinced it is a big factor in turning lookers into renters at the downtown ”city within a city”-type complex.
”You bet!” she said. ”It`s very much a part of our rental pitch all the time.”
She noted that the sports center always is featured prominently in the complex`s advertising, and free introductory memberships often are used for promotions.
”It`s a very big draw,” she said. And it can be an even bigger finish.
”We had an applicant dickering with another building. And I always use the Sports Center for my closing.”
Hirschfield said the tenant`s other suitor offered health club facilities as well, but she pulled out her ace in the hole-the three indoor tennis courts-and won him over.
”It never fails, whether they play tennis or not,” she said.
”The comment is always, `Three?` or `Really?` ” she said, imitating the impressed applicants` incredulous tones.
”I say, `Do you play tennis?` And they say, `No`!”
Noting the apparent irony, she added, ”What I think it does is show the completeness of what we offer.”
City`s slicker
Rental agent Moore said that fitness centers in the city tend to be more complete than those in the suburbs; but they also tend to charge more. She attributes city renters` willingness to pay to have a full club on the premises to their unwillingness to deal with parking and schlepping their gear around.
”In the suburbs, they`re very car-oriented and don`t mind driving to a club,” she said. ”In the city, they`d be more concerned with convenience.” And short of having the equipment in your second bedroom, it doesn`t get more convenient than donning your sweats or swimsuit and jumping into the elevator.
”I wouldn`t go outside in this freezing weather,” said Roberta Brickman, a resident of the Grand Ohio apartments, 211 E. Ohio St., and member of its athletic club. ”But here I can go up and take a warm shower.” Brickman, 30, has been using the facility about four times a week for the past three years.
”Here you can just be yourself . . . it`s just a little more genuine,”
she said.
Brickman added that if she`s sitting up in her apartment and maybe
”feeling a little blue,” she can just run downstairs. It doesn`t take as much effort as pulling everything together and going to a club someplace else. And even in the suburbs, where it may take tenants up to a four-minute drive from their door to the clubhouse if they live in the outer buildings of a complex, it`s still a breeze compared with trekking to off-site facilities. Beating the crowds
In addition, the smaller exercise centers allow for a degree of privacy that full-sized clubs really can`t match. Many have longer hours, in some cases even 24-hour entry with computerized pass codes. The ability to pop in throughout the day or evening cuts down on the before- and after-work crowds that usually tie up regular clubs.
”It`s less crowded here and we have a nice view of the lake. . . . It`s not a lot of hustle and bustle,” said Richard Terhune, a marathon runner who frequently uses the facilities at Edgewater Walk apartments in Tinley Park.
Terhune, 36, once belonged to a full-size health club, but he said the smaller exercise room provides everything he needs. With seven weight machines, a range of computerized cardiovascular cycles, rowers and stair machines, about 15 people can work out in the 1,000 square-foot room-but 10 at a time is more usual.
A lot of seniors citizens may feel out of place in the glow of neon lights and thong-clad women, but they also aren`t interested in being completely surrounded by retirees. For them, apartment clubs offer a comfortable alternative.
Vernon Palmer, 69, a resident of the Pavilion apartment complex, 5441 N. East River Rd., said the swimming pool and exercise facilities at the complex had a lot to do with his wife`s and his decision to move in two years ago.
The couple use the pool and cardiovascular equipment regularly, and play raquetball from time to time. He said they enjoy the fact that there are a lot of younger single people as well as senior members.
”For us it`s the greatest thing in the world,” he said.
But not everyone wants the ”homier” atmosphere of a club on the premises.
”Some people like it here and some people might like a little more prestige,” Palmer observed, noting one fellow swimmer in his 30s who was recently debating whether to renew his lease.
”He wanted a little more action with the younger crowd.”
